PERSONNEL

Yes, you have well read. This unbelievable story happened on a commercial aircraft, on a red-eye flight (a flight taking off late at night and landing early the next morning) from Seattle to Anchorage a month ago. Video report – it starts with basket-ball players, then these flights stories:

CNN’s Rebecca Anderson explains how the safety measures are ensured at Amsterdam’s Schipol airport. You can see in this video how the air traffic controllers work and guide the pilots in, and how the bird management and control personnel copes with BASH – Bird Aircraft Strike Hazard:

According to CNN, and the FBI, a man flew without being actually checked-in as he « slipped » onto the plane. The technique may have worked already since the stowaway got ten invalid boarding passes in his bag. Moreover, none of these passes mentioned his own identity!

Pointing lasers at aircraft can cost pilots their lives. The FAA has decided to increase the penalty. This prank is to cost the offenders a hefty fine – up to $11,000. Some pen-shaped laser pointers have been reported around a thousand times in the USA in 2011, and 2,836 incidents were reported last year.

It may seem a harmless prank. However, when a laser pen user aims at an aircraft, it turns into a dangerous hazard as the laser light is reflected everywhere. When the beams re reflected into the pilots’ eyes, the can get blind, and cause a crash.